Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Red Wing #1-4 (Hickman/Pitarra - Image Comics)

Some comic books force "writers" like me to come back from the cyber-dead and blog about them.

What.  The.  Fuck.  Was going on in this comic book?!

Let me start over.

I love Jonathan Hickman.  You could say that I'm a Jonathan Hick.... fan.  Even when he phones in work-for-hire for Marvel, I still enjoy it.  I picked up the first issue of this book solely based on the fact that his name was on the cover; didn't hurt that the cover looked like it had been drawn by Geof Darrow.
 
But...

You know what I hate?  Time travel.

You know what I really hate?  Trying to read a book about time travel... monthly.

You know what I really really hate?  Father/son melodrama.

You know what I really really really hate?  This book looks like it was drawn by Frank Quitely when he was 12.

Amazingly, I still thought this comic was fun.  I have no idea what happened, because the characters all kind of looked the same AND because it was monthly and involved time travel.  I plan on re-reading it and trying to figure it out.

Panels were frequently rough to follow, or vague, or disjointed, and a lot of the backgrounds looked like they had been drawn in Microsoft Pain.  BUT the coloring was good, and pretty much carried the art on its shoulders.  However, for all the crap I've said about Pitarra's art, the covers are fucking gorgeous.  It's obvious that the dude can draw very very well.

All in all, read this if you have the opportunity, or if you love Jonathan Hickman, but it's pretty much like going out to eat at a mediocre Thai restaurant.